Chatham County

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They voted 4-1 to approve Chatham Park, which, at more than 7,000 acres is believed to be the largest development plan in North Carolina history. The project, which will create dense residential development clustered around five “village centers” in the largely undeveloped tracts of eastern Chatham County, is expected to increase the small Chatham County town’s population from 4,000 to 60,000 people by 2050.

When the “planned community” of Reston, Va., was founded outside Washington in the mid-1960s, it was revolutionary. A contained city, a walking city, with conveniences and short commutes.

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I haven't been to Reston nor have I seen detailed plans for Chatham Park but my feelings are that A) Reston is nothing to aspire to based on a google view, and appears to contain few aspects of more recent "walkable" communities and B) having almost 30 years of the flavor of development in this area and learning to translate high flying language into what it'll really be like, I doubt Chatham Park will resemble much more than a second splatting of Cary complete with side walks adjacent to high speed thoroughfares (read, unsafe to walk on) lots of cup-de-sacs hidden behind a very leafy green shopping centers, also replete with sidewalks but said cul-de-sacs being too far from the shopping for anyone to ever actually consider using them, plus other clear Cary modern suburb stuff like clear separation of uses (read no apartments over retail ) and inconvenient, if any, public transportation.

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Phase I of the WMATA Silver Line, which should open in a few months, ends at the Wiehle-Reston East station (VA 267 and Wiehle Ave). Phase II, which will extend beyond Dulles Airport, will add a station at Reston Parkway, The public statement on Phase II is 2018, but given how far behind schedule Phase I is, I'm guessing that Phase II will be 2020.

Phase I will carry a mix of commuters from Reston to Tysons Corner, commuters from Reston into Arlington/DC, and a few reverse commuters. Any relief on VA 7 will be welcome.

As for traffic on US 64, yes it will definitely get worse between Pittsboro and the NC 540 interchange. But 540 has loads of excess capacity between US 64 and RTP/RDU. Currently there are only 3 stop lights on the 13 miles from Pittsboro to the 64/540 interchange. How many stop lights will be added over the next 10 years is anyone's guess. Eventually 64 will have to be converted to a limited access road.

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For decades, the available road construction money has been parceled out according to non-proportional politics. Thus US 17 is now mostly four lanes between the Virginia line and the South Carolina line. This is slowly improving, however, as metro Charlotte, the Triad, and the Triangle get more seats in the NC General Assembly.

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For decades, the available road construction money has been parceled out according to non-proportional politics. Thus US 17 is now mostly four lanes between the Virginia line and the South Carolina line. This is slowly improving, however, as metro Charlotte, the Triad, and the Triangle get more seats in the NC General Assembly.

Gerrymandering will delay the process further. Before, the urban areas were neglected by the Eastern NC dems that controlled the state. Now the urban areas are neglected and outright punished by the rural republicans that control the state.

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Inbound on 64, traffic congestion is basically non existent until you get to Laura Duncan. Add 60,000 residents in Pittsboro and the picture changes significantly. Luckily, NCDOT has a plan on the books to improve 64 mostly to a freeway.

Laura Duncan and Lake Pine are eventually planned for conversion to interchanges, as is everything between the NC540/Kelly Road interchanges and the Pittsboro Bypass. This is a long-term plan, but 60,000 residents won't show up overnight either.

I said mostly above because the folks in MacGregor object to having their quaint bucolic country road (yeah, right.) turned into a highway to carry through traffic. They somehow managed to get NCDOT to say they won't ever upgrade the part east of Lake Pine beyond the status of a Super Street. Anybody can see that this is ridiculous: this is the busiest part of the road by far. Perhaps this was a reaction to the rather extreme designs put forth by NCDOT. I for one think that a less imposing design should be found. Not that my drawing would be any less expensive than the NCDOT designs but it focuses all the impacts on a low-density office district and a dying strip mall instead of closer to the residential neighborhoods. It also lets Tryon Road continue through to Lake Pine as a local street.

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Gerrymandering will delay the process further. Before, the urban areas were neglected by the Eastern NC dems that controlled the state. Now the urban areas are neglected and outright punished by the rural republicans that control the state.

The Triangle in particular takes a hit in the current political environment because Durham and Orange counties are heavily Democratic and Wake County tends to be an even split. But be fair. Speaker of the House? Mecklenburg. Speaker pro tem of the House? Wake. Senate president pro tem? Guilford (partly). The Republican leadership is not all from rural counties. And the governor certainly isn't.

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Development at the sprawling Chatham-Randolph megasite has the potential to reach into the millions of square feet — should, of course, the site land a large-scale industrial end user.

The acreage is bounded by Stockyard Road and U.S. 64, immediately southeast of the megasite. The 270 acres are owned by Tim’s Farm and Forestry II, which is managed by Chatham-Randolph megasite co-owner Tim Booras.

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Sweet site. Access to rail, US 64, and US 421. The airport at Siler City has a 5000-foot runway which is good enough for corporate jets although the FBO would have to improve services. Close enough for workers to drive from the eastern and southern Triad, Asheboro, Burlington, and the western Triangle.